Rocacorba Daily

In this morning’s edition of the Rocacorba Daily news digest: Viviani wins Coppa Bernocchi ahead of Pozzato and Ponzi; Pozzato makes case for worlds inclusion through Coppa Bernocchi runner-up slot; Biological passport: What can teams learn from the Tiernan-Locke case?; Degenkolb hospitalised after Vuelta, will miss world championship team time trial; Glittering world championship team time trial squad named by Omega Pharma Quick Step; Uran to miss TTT worlds but should make road race; Valverde signs contract to remain with Movistar until end of 2017;

Viviani wins Coppa Bernocchi ahead of Pozzato and Ponzi

Elia Viviani (Cannondale) once again illustrated his rapid sprint when he blasted home first at the end of Tuesday’s Coppa Bernocchi race in Legnano, Italy.

The Italian rider showcased his form when he finished ahead of compatriots Filippo Pozzato (Lampre-Merida) and Simone Ponzi (Neri Sottoli) at the end of the 1.1-ranked race.

The victory is his sixth of the season and shows that he is in good shape prior to what will be his final contest of the season, Memorial Pantani. He has not been selected for the worlds.

“We were here to win, and when you’re named as the favourite it’s never easy to do it,” he said. “I’m really happy for this success – this is a great award for my teammates and the support they gave me. We built this win during all the race, managing the breakaway and then forcing to select the peloton. In the finale, even if the bunch was closed to catch us, I was confident that I’d be able to win.”

“After the Tour de France, I had a period of rest and was very useful for the final part of the season,” he said. “In Colorado I found again the feeling with the win but, most important, I improved the level of my condition.

“I had positive signals at Brussels Classics and GP de Fourmies; today I just exploited the result of these efforts. I’ve only one regret, not being included in the list of the Italian team for Ponferrada. Anyway I’ll be there to support my girlfriend and my colleagues.”

Coming after his third place on the 19th stage of the Vuelta a España, Filippo Pozzato’s second place finish in the Coppa Bernocchi shows that the Lampre-Merida rider is knuckling down after getting a public slating by his team manager Brent Copeland last month.

In an interview with Tutto Bici, Copeland referred to Pozzato as a Prima Donna and said that his attitude needed to change.

Pozzato seems either to have taken on board or else to be determined to prove Copeland wrong; either way, he seems finally to be coming into form after a lacklustre season.

He was backed in the final kilometre by team-mates Diego Ulissi, back racing despite a pending case for exceeding the accepted limits for salbutamol, and Niccolò Bonifazio. However despite their help he was unable to get the better of Viviani.

“I believed in the possibility of getting the victory, I did my best in the sprint,” he said. “I approached the sprint in the best possible way, I was aware I could win. Unfortunately, Viviani performed an amazing sprint, his speed was unbeatable.”

He is on the Italian long-list for the world championship road race but is yet to secure his place in Ponferrada. He will keep pushing for inclusion and also to further build his form. “I won’t be in Coppa Agostoni, so I won’t have the opportunity to repeat the victory I obtained in 2013, but I’ll be at the start of Tre Valli Varesine,” he said.

Ulissi returns to racing but is then sidelined again

He’s been sidelined for months since the news broke in June that he was facing likely disciplinary action over a positive test for high levels of salbutamol.

However, hours later, his team confirmed that he had been sidelined once more after the UCI formally requested disciplinary proceedings be opened.

The governing body issued a statement Tuesday in relation to the matter.

“The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) has requested Swiss Cycling, National Federation which delivered the licence to the rider, to instigate disciplinary proceedings against Mr. Diego Ulissi,” it said.

Biological passport: What can teams learn from the Tiernan-Locke case?

In the spring of 2012 Jonathan Tiernan-Locke forced his way onto the radar of Garmin- Sharp and other teams with a number of career-best performances.

The-then Endura Racing Continental-level rider won two stages, the overall classification and the points competition in the Tour of the Mediterranean, then went to the Tour du Haut Var and dominated there. He followed those rides up with second overall behind Nairo Quintana in the Vuelta a Murcia.

Given that he was racing against much bigger teams and better-known riders, the performances stunned. They also ensured the attention of some of those same squads, including Garmin-Sharp.

The CEO of the latter team, Jonathan Vaughters, was interested in Tiernan-Locke and saw him as a possible addition to his WorldTour squad for 2013. However, as per team policy, he required that any riders without biological passports do a series of blood tests in order to build up a profile and show they are clean.

If the team is satisfied with the figures and believes they look credible, it can then decide to offer the rider a contract.

“The thing with Tiernan-Locke was that we tried to do that in February or early March of that year, when he was in a real high performance period, but he wouldn’t come down to Girona,” Vaughters said. “We kept saying, ‘okay, you need to be here tomorrow for the test,’ but he would say, ‘oh no, I’m busy, I have got this or I have got that.’ He would always put it off, put it off, put it off…”

Degenkolb hospitalised after Vuelta, will miss world championship team time trial

One of the top favourites for the world road race championships, John Degenkolb, has been forced to withdraw from the Giant-Shimano squad for the team time trial after being hospitalised in Germany.

… and takes his fourth stage win of the race.

The sprinter clocked up four stage wins plus the green jersey in the Vuelta a España, sealing the latter achievement on Sunday, but quickly ran into problems his team attributes to his stage seven crash in the race.

“After the race my lymph nodes swelled up to ping-pong ball size and then I could barely walk with the pain,” he said in a team statement. “It turns out one of the abrasions was deeper than we thought. A combination of the work-load at the Vuelta and the healing of the skin led to inflammation.”

“I tortured myself over the final stages in order not to lose the jersey, then at night I got chills and fevers and was admitted to hospital after my flight home.

Glittering world championship team time trial squad named by Omega Pharma Quick Step

Aiming to take its third consecutive TTT gold medal at the world road race championships, the Omega Pharma QuickStep team has unveiled a highly-impressive lineup for next weekend’s event.

Three time individual time trial champion Tony Martin will spearhead the squad and will provide serious horsepower to the campaign.

He will be joined by five other in-form riders, who will all travel to Ponferrada on Wednesday. According to directeur sportif Tom Steels, the course is more technical and more difficult that last year’s parcours, but going early will enable the team to become very familiar with it.

“The team is strong. We believe this team can repeat the success of the first two attempts,” he said. “All the guys showed they are in good condition for the race where they each competed in the last week.

“We have Tony Martin, who is the core as three-time UCI World TT Champion. Then we have Niki Terpstra, who is a guarantee to perform in this effort as he was on the world championship team the last two years. Then we have Michal Kwiatkowski, who was a part of the team last year and showed his strength at Tour of Britain a few days ago.

“Tom Boonen is also there. He can’t wait to be a part of the team again after the experience the 2012 gold medal in Valkenburg. Then we have the two new rider selections in Pieter Serry and Julien Vermote. Serry was selected for the Belgian World TT Championship team, which shows his prowess and his condition for the chrono. Vermote just won a race at Tour of Britain with a long breakway and a solo victory.”

He noted that the latter two have worked hard with Specialized to improve their time trials. “The team is really competitive and ready to play a role in Ponferrada,” he predicted.

Uran to miss TTT worlds but should make road race

One rider who is missing from the Omega Pharma-QuickStep line-up for the world championship team time trial is the Giro d’Italia runner-up Rigoberto Uran. The Colombian rider was forced to quit the Vuelta a España due to asthmatic bronchitis and, according to the team, he is still recovering.

“Today he passed a few examinations in Belgium, together with team medical staff,” it said in a statement. “His diagnosis was confirmed asthmatic bronchitis.

“He will follow therapy for the next five days and be ready for the UCI World Road Championship on the 28th of September.”

Uran is both a strong climber and time trialist, and will hope to ride well on what is understood to be a selective championship course.

He finished second behind compatriot Nairo Quintana (Movistar) in the Giro d’Italia, and won the stage 12 time trial. He also finished third overall in this year’s Tour of Oman.

Valverde signs contract to remain with Movistar until end of 2017

The Movistar team has rewarded Vuelta a España podium finisher Alejandro Valverde with a new contract, extending the Spaniard’s time with the squad by a further three seasons. The 34 year old had one of the best years of his career in 2014, taking third plus a stage win in the Vuelta, netting fourth in the Tour de France and winning a string of events, including the Vuelta a Andalucia, Roma Maxima, the Vuelta a Murcia, Flèche Wallonne, the Clásica de San Sebastián and the national time trial championships.

Valverde, Rodriguez and Contador battle it out for third on stage 18 …

He is currently second in the WorldTour classification and has a good chance of overtaking Alberto Contador before the end of the year.

“He’s an incomparable rider,” enthused general manager Eusebio Unzué in announcing the contract extension. “There’s no-one able to keep as much focus and willingness to win through the whole season like he does. He performs just like the best and gives us lots of reasons to keep supporting him every day.

“Though he’s spent so much time at the top, he shows us he’s feeling like a 25-year-old. He’s superb.”

Valverde had been in talks with the team for several weeks but things were only finalised more recently. He’s sharing leadership roles in the team with Nairo Quintana, who was second in last year’s Tour de France and won this year’s Giro d’Italia.

Both had top billing during the Vuelta but Quintana crashed out while in the leader’s red jersey. Valverde stepped forward and was able to take that third place, which is the sixth podium finish of his career in the race.

He has been with the team setup since 2005, being with it through its various incarnations. He said that remaining part of the squad was always his big goal.

Chris Horner still without a contract for 2015

“No contract, nothing is done yet,” Horner told Cyclingnews. “Everything is open for next year and we’ll see what happens. I haven’t signed anything yet for next year. It’s stressful to a degree because it’s always nice to have things lined up, especially at my age.”

“I would like to do another year, maybe two, we’ll see how it goes,” said Horner.

“Obviously at my age it’s difficult because nobody wants an older guy. I’m six or seven years passed the expiration date. I have to fight against that. I don’t think age should matter but obviously it does because if it didn’t I’d have 20 teams wanting to sign me because I’m a Grand Tour winner, instead of just a few.”

Malcolm Speed appointed Cycling Australia president

Yesterday Cycling Australia has announced the appointment of a new board with long-time sporting administrator and former International Cricket Council CEO Malcolm Speed as president (second from the right in the image below).

The new board, which was ratified at a Cycling Australia (CA) meeting last night, will swear in Speed as president when it meets for the first time later this week.

The election of the new board and president coincides with the announcement of a $2 million loan to Cycling Australia, to help stabilise the ailing national body. Cycling Australia has been in significant financial difficulty for several years and the loan will reportedly be used to protect the country’s high performance program while ongoing governance reforms take place.